13 Great Stories That Have Nothing to Do With Politics

Welcome to Our Picks, a guide to the best stuff to read, watch and listen to from around the internet. We know you don’t want to read only political news, so we’re collecting great long-form articles, podcasts, videos and other web treasures you might like when you need a break. And yes, we’re also tooting our own horn here. We’ll share can’t-miss Times stories from the week and surface some gems you might have overlooked.

We want to hear from you! Send us feedback about our selections to ourpicks@nytimes.com.

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CreditJerome Favre/European Pressphoto Agency

Quick Reads

• “If the girls play, this will be the end of your season. You won’t play in the playoffs.” This was the ultimatum posed to a coed fifth-grade basketball team on Friday night before the penultimate game of its season.

The team members’ response was swift and unanimous: They would sacrifice their record to maintain team unity. Squad goals, indeed. [NJ.com]

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• The heart shape may have been inspired by the seed pods of an ancient, fennel-like plant known as Silphium.

In addition to treating fevers, corns and stomach aches, the plant may also have been used as a contraceptive. Nothing more romantic than fennel-flavored birth control. [Atlas Obscura]

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• Dreaming of taking a vacation to some place very far away?

People have been thinking about how to make hotels in space a reality since the Lunar Hilton was proposed in 1967. But as this brief history points out, you may want to hold off on that reservation until astronomical pipe dreams are replaced with actual pipes. [The Outline]

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CreditMary Esch/Associated Press.

Great Long Reads

• Rhonda McCoy is the most unlikely of heroes. Ms. McCoy, the food service director for the public schools of Cabell County, W.Va., is a local person who figured out how to do what the celebrity chef and reality-television do-gooder Jamie Oliver could not: feed tasty, nutritious food to the children of one of America’s unhealthiest cities. [Huffington Post Highline]

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• Consider it a story of rehabilitation. Ken Lowson was the “most infamous ticket scalper of all time,” using bots to buy and sell concert tickets at marked up prices. After his arrest in 2010, however, Mr. Lowson devoted himself to fighting the industry he once pioneered to make sure that real, human fans got the first opportunity to buy tickets to their favorite bands’ shows. [Motherboard]

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CreditJessica Lehrman for The New York Times

From The New York Times

• Happy Valentine’s Day! We askedNew York Today readers to share their experiences with subway romance, and we were tickled to hear about so many encounters — on enough train lines to cover the alphabet — that led to marriage. Here are a handful of those stories.

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• “I had a permanent smile on my face. I felt like I belonged there.” Those are the words of Joe Maldonado, 9, on his first meeting as a member of the Maplewood Cub Scouts in New Jersey.

He became one of the first transgender children to join the organization after the Boy Scouts of America reversed its policy of more than a century on Jan. 30, accepting members based on the gender listed on their application.______

• James Lowell Gibbs Jr. was a graduate student at Harvard and the school’s first African-American resident tutor. Jewelle Taylor Gibbs was a senior at Radcliffe and the only black student in her class. They were married in 1956 and became one of the earliest African-American couples to appear in The New York Times’s wedding announcements.

• Dog break: Marvel up close at the wrinkles of Glitter the Chinese shar-pei, stare into the eyes of Duo the Australian shepherd, or see the Westminster Dog Show through the eyes of a pup in our 360 video. (Unfortunately — or fortunately — you’ll just have to imagine touching these dogs that “feel like ‘warm bologna’.”)

What We’re Looking At

• Beautiful and comforting in a “glad-that’s-not-me” kind of way, these photographs of icefishermen covered in single sheets of plastic are worth a scroll. [The Calvert Journal]

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• In 2012, John Collins constructed a paper airplane that flew a record-setting 226 feet.

Now, you can fold one of your own Collins-designed airplanes and impress your friends and family. Just watch this 45-second video released by Harvard, and, remember, it’s all in the wrist. [Harvard Gazette via Gizmodo]

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What We’re Listening To

• While you’re waiting for your date tonight or lounging at home alone, you should listen to this 15-minute episode of the “Mortified” podcast. In it, a man reads a humorously cringe-inducing love letter he wrote as a teen.

It will make you blush with secondhand embarrassment and feel lucky that — whatever your relationship status is this Valentine’s Day — you didn’t write this note. [“Tom: My Funny Valentine” episode on SoundCloud, iTunes ]

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